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Joint Strike Fighter coming
Bad weather delays arrival
Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009
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Another week has come and gone, and the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter has not yet arrived at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station, despite rumors that it was supposed to arrive Tuesday, and the Tuesday before.
According to Lockheed Martin spokesman John R. Kent, the rainy, foggy weather in Fort Worth, Texas, has kept the plane grounded, awaiting the last few test flights before it is turned over to the Navy.
"The weather has turned beautiful," Kent reported Tuesday, adding that Lockheed should be able to finish its four remaining flights and deliver the test planes to Pax River "within the next 10 days."
Before the planes arrive, Kent confirmed that they will also be making a stop at Lockheed's facility in Marietta, Ga., for a few tests.
The Navy's Joint Strike Fighter program office is more conservative in its estimate of the JSF's arrival.
"The plane will not ferry to Pax today," spokeswoman Cheryl Limrick said Tuesday. "It still has several flights that must take place down at Fort Worth before the clearance is signed to ferry. We hope to have the plane at Pax this month."
Last week, Pax River released a statement saying that the plane "will soon be calling Naval Air Station Patuxent River home," but did not mention a timetable.
Meanwhile, both the Pentagon and the United Kingdom's Royal Navy have already placed orders for this new fighter plane, even though it has yet to be fully tested.
Subcontractor Northrop Grumman released a statement last week announcing that it has begun production of center fuselages for the F-35B, the short takeoff and landing variant of the plane, for Britain.
According to Brooks McKinney, Northrop's spokesman, the company is aiming to produce 13 to 14 fuselages by the end of the year, noting that production will gradually increase.
The Navy is hoping to deploy the JSF to its aircraft carriers by 2014, but the Pentagon's Joint Estimate Team issued a report this summer estimating that the program is two years behind schedule and won't move into full production mode until 2016.
